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Henry Ford
A glimpse of a Ford assembling room--and we can see the same process in other
American factories--makes clear the reasons for this success. In these rooms no
fitting is done; the fragments of automobiles come in automatically and are
simply bolted together. First of all the units are assembled in their several
departments. The rear axles, the front axles, the frames, the radiators, and the
motors are all put together with the same precision and exactness that marks the
operation of the completed car. Thus the wheels come from one part of the
factory and are rolled on an inclined plane to a particular spot. The tires are
propelled by some mysterious force to the same spot; as the two elements
coincide, workmen quickly put them together. In a long room the bodies are
slowly advanced on moving platforms at the rate of about a foot per minute. At
the side stand groups of men, each prepared to do his bit, their materials being
delivered at convenient points by chutes. As the tops pass by these men quickly
bolt them into place, and the completed body is sent to a place where it awaits
the chassis. This important section, comprising all the machinery, starts at one
end of a moving platform as a front and rear axle bolted together with the
frame. As this slowly ,advances, it passes under a bridge containing a gasoline
tank, which is quickly adjusted. Farther on the motor is swung over by a small
hoist and lowered into position on the frame. Presently the dash slides down and
is placed in position behind the motor. As the rapidly accumulating mechanism
passes on, different workmen adjust the mufflers, exhaust pipes, the radiator,
and the wheels which, as already indicated, arrive on the scene completely
tired. Then a workman seats himself on the gasoline tank, which contains a small
quantity of its indispensable fuel, starts the engine, and the thing moves out
the door under its own power. It stops for a moment outside; the completed body
drops down from the second floor, and a few bolts quickly put it securely in
place. The workman drives the now finished Ford to a loading platform, it is
stored away in a box car, and is started on its way to market. At the present
time about 2000 cars are daily turned out in this fashion. The nation demands
them at a more rapid rate than they can be made.
Herein we have what is probably America's greatest manufacturing exploit. And
this democratization of the automobile comprises more than the acme of
efficiency in the manufacturing art. The career of Henry Ford has a symbolic
significance as well. It may be taken as signalizing the new ideals that have
gained the upper hand in American industry. We began this review of American
business with Cornelius Vanderbilt as the typical figure. It is a happy augury
that it closes with Henry Ford in the foreground. Vanderbilt, valuable as were
many of his achievements, represented that spirit of egotism that was rampant
for the larger part of the fifty years following the war. He was always seeking
his own advantage, and he never regarded the public interest as anything worth a
moment's consideration. With Ford, however, the spirit of service has been the
predominating motive. His earnings have been immeasurably greater than
Vanderbilt's; his income for two years amounts to nearly Vanderbilt's total
fortune at his death; but the piling up of riches has been by no means his
exclusive purpose. He has recognized that his workmen are his partners and has
liberally shared with them his increasing profits. His money is not the product
of speculation; Ford is a stranger to Wall Street and has built his business
independently of the great banking interest. He has enjoyed no monopoly, as have
the Rockefellers; there are more than three hundred makers of automobiles in the
United States alone. He has spurned all solicitations to join combinations. Far
from asking tariff favors he has entered European markets and undersold English,
French, and German makers on their own ground. Instead of taking advantage of a
great public demand to increase his prices, Ford has continuously lowered them.
Though his idealism may have led him into an occasional personal absurdity, as a
business man he may be taken as the full flower of American manufacturing
genius. Possibly America, as a consequence of universal war, is advancing to a
higher state of industrial organization; but an economic system is not entirely
evil that produces such an industry as that which has made the automobile the
servant of millions of Americans. |
